LIBRARY 


OF 


i        GEORGE  F.   DANFORTH,         \ 

ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 


J.  D.  M. 


Sy//fa^>&^*~~ 


• 


*-■  t 


Prehistoric  Structures 


-OF- 


CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


WHO  ERECTED  THEM? 


A^    LECTURE, 


BY 


MARTIN    INGHAM   TOWNSEND, 

OF  TROY.  NEW  YORK. 


TROV,  X.   V.  : 

T.    ).    II!  HI. ION,    PRINTER,    HARMONS     HALL    BUILDING 

1895. 


PREHISTORIC  CENTRAL  AMERICA 
AND  PERU. 


THE  ANCIENT  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  SCHOLARS 

KNEW    OF  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  THE 

WESTERN  CONTINENT. 

In  the  earlier  existence  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
peoples,  knowledge  was  extremely  limited.  These 
peoples  were  without  any  mode  of  perpetuating  or 
transmitting  knowledge  until  the  days,  a  little 
more  than  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian 
Era,  when  Cadmus  brought  from  Phoenecia  the 
letters  which  had  been  invented  and  adopted  there 
for  the  representation  and  expression  of  articulate 
sounds  ;  and  by  the  combination  of  these  letters  to 
transmit  and  perpetuate  human  ideas.  There  is 
scarce  a  race  of  savages  in  our  day  where  the  mass 
of  the  body  politic  are  as  profoundly  ignorant  as 
were  the  great  body  of  the  Greek  people  a  thousand 
years  before  Christ. 

Even  those  men  who  made  such  acquisitions  of 
knowledge  as  were  possible  in  that  day,  could  only 
learn  from  the  lips  of  their  imperfectly  trained 
teacher,  and  bv  travel  to  those  countries  which  the 
barbarous  condition  of  the  world  allowed  them  to 
visit ;  and  even  after  the  learned  men  of  the  Greek 
Islands  came  to  know  the  power  of  letters,  how 
small  must  have  been  the  amount  of  knowledge  ex- 
isting in  the  world,  and  how  slow  must  have  been 
its  spread  amongst  the  untaught  commonalty  of  the 
then  Greek  world  ?    In  the  day  when  the  Phoenician 


ship  Argo  made  a  voyage  to  Colchis,  at  the  east  end 
of  the  Black  Sea,  it  so  fired  the  imagination  of  the 
Greek  poets  that  they  dreamed  of  the  voyage  and 
composed  poems  about  it  for  centuries. 

Indeed  it  was  not  until  the  Romans,  just  before 
the  Christian  Era,  had  subdued  all  the  borders  of 
the  historic  Mediterranean  Sea,  that  free  intercourse 
amongst  the  inhabitants  prevailed.  Up  to  that 
period  every  people,  as  a  rule,  carefully  guarded  all 
knowledge  of  their  own  wealth,  and  of  their  own 
acts  and  possessions  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  in- 
stead of  making  public  expositions  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  outside  world  to  their  useful 
achievements,  and  they  sometimes  passed  laws  for 
inflicting  the  severest  punishments  upon  citizens 
who  should  reveal  to  the  outside  world  the  loca- 
tions, nature,  or  extent,  or  value  of  their  posses- 
sions. 

Still,  we  glean  from  the  ancient  writers  the 
following  announcements. 

1.  That  ancient  book  entitled  "The  Book  of 
Wonders,"  ascribed  to  Aristotle,  contains  the  fol- 
lowing :  tkWhen  the  Carthagenians,  who  were 
masters  of  the  western  ocean,  observed  that  many 
traders  and  other  men,  attracted  by  the  fertility  of 
the  soil  and  the  pleasant  climate,  had  fixed  there 
their  homes,  they  feared  that  the  knowledge  of  this 
land  should  reach  other  nations,  a  great  concourse 
to  it  of  men  from  the  various  lands  of  the  earth 
would  follow,  that  the  conditions  of  life,  then  so 
happy  on  that  island,  would  not  only  be  unfavor- 
ably affected,  but  the  Carthagenian  Empire  itself 
suffer  injury,  and  the  dominion  of  the  sea  be  wrest- 
ed from  their  hands  ;  and  so  they  issued  a  decree 
that  no  one,  under  penalty  of  death,  should  there- 
after sail  thither."     This   passage   is   quoted,    not 


5 

merely  with  a  claim  that  it  refers  to  the  Continent 
of  America,  hut  for  the  purpose  of  showing  how 
carefully  the  Phoenician  people,  whether  Asiatic, 
Carthagenian,  or  Spanish,  guarded  from  the  great 
world  the  foreign  discoveries  which  they  had  made, 
and  where  their  kindred  were  enjoying  prosperity  ; 
and  to  enable  us  to  see  how  little  likely  their  dis- 
coveries would  be  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  great  mass  of  mankind. 

2.  Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  some  of  the 
things  which  the  ancient  Greek  and  Latin  authors 
have  said  indicating  their  knowledge  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  western  continent.  Crates,  a  commentator 
on  Homer,  is  quoted  by  authority  of  Strabo,  a  very 
learned  author  of  the  century  before  Christ,  as 
saying  that  Homer  means  in  his  account  of  the 
western  Ethiopians  the  inhabitants  of  the  Atlantis 
or  the  Hesperides,  as  the  unknown  world  of  the 
west  was  then  variously  called. 

3.  Pliny  also  6  :  31-36,  locates  the  western  Ethi- 
opians somewhere  in  the  Atlantic.  This  shows  that 
Crates  and  Pliny  believed  that  the  great  poet  Homer 
believed  in  the  existence  of  a  great  continent  on  the 
western  shore  of  the  Atlantic  ocean. 

4.  Plato  says  in  his  Timaeus,  Chapter  VI.  :  "The 
sea"  (the  Atlantic  ocean),  "was  indeed  navigable 
and  had  an  island  fronting  the  mouth  which  you  in 
your  tongue  call  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  this 
island  is  larger  than  Libya-  and  Asia  put  together, 
and  there  is  a  passage  hence  for  travelers  of  that 
day  to  the  rest  of  the  islands,  as  well  as  from  those 
islands  to  the  whole  opposite  continent  that  sur- 
rounds the  real  sea. 

5.  Humboldt  quotes  that  Anaxagoras,  who  was 


6 

born  five  hundred  years  B.  C,  and  was  a  most 
eminent  Greek  philosopher,  speaks  of  the  grand 
division  of  the  world  beyond  the  ocean. 

6.  Aelian  in  his  Varia?  Historian,  Book  3,  Chapter 
IS,  cites  Theopompus,  an  eminent  Greek  historian, 
born  about  three  hundred  years  B.  C,  as  stating 
that  the  Meropians  inhabit  a  large  continent  beyond 
the  ocean,  in  comparison  with  which  the  known 
world  was  but  an  island. 

7.  Aristotle  says  in  Chapters  84  and  85  :  "Be- 
yond the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  they  say  that  an  inhab- 
ited island  was  discovered  by  the  Carthagenians, 
which  abounded  in  forests  and  navigable  rivers  and 
fruits  of  all  kinds,  distant  from  the  continent  many 
days'  sail.  And  while  the  Carthagenians  were 
engaged  in  making  voyages  to  this  land,  and  some 
had  even  settled  there  on  account  of  the  fertility  of 
the  soil,  the  Senate  decreed  that  no  one  thereafter, 
under  penalty  of  death,  should  voyage  thither.'1 
Aristotle  was  born  three  hundred  and  eighty-four 
years  before  Christ. 

8.  Diodorus  of  Sicily,  who  lived  in  the  century 
preceding  the  Christian  Era,  says  in  his  Book  5, — 19 
and  20,  that  it  was  the  "  Phoenicians  instead  of  the 
Carthagenians  who  were  cast  upon  a  most  fertile 
island  opposite  Africa,  where  the  climate  was  that 
of  perpetual  spring,  and  that  the  laud  was  the 
proper  habitation  for  gods  rather  than  men." 

He  speaks  of  the  continent,  however,  at  length 
and  with  great  detail,  enumerating  its  fertile  valleys 
and  navigable  rivers,  its  rich  and  abundant  fruits 
and  supply  of  game,  its  valuable  forests  and  its 
genial  climate. 

9.  Pliny  quotes  Statius  Sebosus,  in  his  volume  2, 
page  106,  Bohn,  as  saying  that  the  tao  Hesperides 
are  forty-two  days'  sail  from  the  coast  of  Africa. 


THE  PHOENICIAN  PEOPLE  WERE  EQUAL  TO 
THE  DISCOVERIES  ON  THE  WESTERN  CON- 
TINENT, IF  WE  JUDGE  THEM  BY  WHAT  THEY 
ACTUALLY  ACCOMPLISHED. 

The  prophet  Isaiah,  writing  soon  after  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  before  Christ,  in  the  twenty- 
third  chapter  of  his  prophecy,  gives  us  a  pretty  good 
idea  of  the  unlimited  commerce  and  the  unlimited 
prosperity  of  the  merchants  of  Tyre.  Among  other 
things  he  says  the  following,  speaking  of  the  City 
"  Whose  antiquity  is  of  ancient  days."  He  calls 
the  City  "  The  Crowning  City,"  "  whose  merchants 
are  princes,  whose  traffickers  are  the  honorable  of 
the  earth."  The  wealth  and  luxury  of  Tyre 
was  eternally  injurious  to  the  Jewish  people  from 
the  time  of  their  return  from  Egypt  to  Canaan  to 
the  carrying  away  of  Israel  to  Babylon  in  the  later 
days.  The  Jewish  husbandman,  dazzled  by  the 
luxuries  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  was  affected  as  those  in 
more  moderate  circumstances  are  in  later  days,  by 
the  manners  and  customs  of  their  rich  neighbors, 
and  wTere  building  groves  in  high  places  under 
which  to  worship,  as  did  the  priests  of  Baal  in  Pal- 
estine, and  under  the  oaks  in  the  northwest  of 
Europe,  where  they  acquired  the  name  of  Druids. 
They  forsook  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob 
and  worshipped  Baal  and  Ashtaroth  and  Astarte, 
the  Phoenician  Venus. 

They  even  sacrificed  their  children  to  Moloch,  the 
relentless  fire  god,  as  Baal  appeared  in  his  sterner 
characteristics.  But  upon  the  loss  of  wealth  which 
Phoenicia  sustained  in  the  wars  with  Nebuchadnez- 
zar and  subsequently  with  Alexander,  the  Phoeni- 
cians ceased  to  be  conspicuously  wealthy  and  lux- 
urious, and  Israel  was  left  to  worship  that  God  who 


called  their  father  Abraham  from  upper  Chaldea, 
and  who  afterwards  brought  him  out  of  the  "  House 
of  Bondage  "  in  Egypt  after  having  been  four  hun- 
dred years  enslaved  there. 

We  have  now  glanced  at  the  widespread  influence 
of  the  Phoenician  people  over  the  borders  of  the 
Mediterranean  sea  and  over  the  west  and  northwest 
of  Europe. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  what  we  have  said 
upon  this  subject  is  founded  upon  authentic  evi- 
dence from  ancient  history  and  modern  fact. 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  now  and  see  what  these 
peoples  accomplished  through  the  waters  of  the  Red 
sea  and  upon  the  waters  easterly  of  the  straits  of 
Bab-el-Mandeb.  After  Solomon  had  associated  with 
Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  and  Hiram,  the  son  of  Abif, 
the  chief  of  the  mechanics  who  built  the  temple, 
and  become  acquainted  with  the  wealth  brought 
home  by  Phoenician  ships  from  the  great  outside 
world,  his  spirit  of  Jewish  thrift  was  excited,  and 
he  determined  to  share  in  the  profits  of  nautical  ad- 
ventures. In  the  first  book  of  Kings,  chapter  9, 
verses  26,  27  and  28,  we  find  the  following  :  "  And 
King  Solomon  made  a  navy  of  ships  in  Ezion  Geber, 
which  is  beside  Eloth,  on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea, 
in  the  land  of  Edom.  And  Hiram  sent  in  the  navy 
his  servants,  shipmen  who  had  knowledge  of  the 
sea,  with  the  servants  of  Solomon. 

"And  they  came  to  Ophir  and  fetched  from 
thence  gold,  four  hundred  and  twenty  talents,  and 
brought  it  to  King  Solomon.''  In  the  18th  chapter 
of  this  book,  11th  and  12th  verses,  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing :  ' '  And  the  navy  also  of  Hiram  that  brought 
gold  from  Ophir,  brought  in  from  Ophir  great  plenty 


9 

of  nlmug  trees  and  precious  stones,  and  the  king 
made  of  the  almug  trees  pillars  for  the  house  of  the 
lord  and  for  the  king's  house,  harps  also  and  psal- 
teries for  the  singers.  There  came  no  such  almug 
trees  nor  were  seen  unto  this  day.'' 

In  the  Second  of  Chronicles,  chapter  9,  verses  10 
and  11,  we  find  the  following  :  "  And  the  servants 
also  of  Hiram  and  the  servants  of  Solomon,  which 
hrought  gold  from  Ophir,  brought  algum  trees  and 
precious  stones,  and  the  king  made  of  the  algum 
trees  terraces  to  the  house  of  the  lord  and  to  the 
king's  palace,  and  harps  and  psalteries  for  the  sing- 
ers, and  there  were  none  such  seen  before  in  the 
land  of  Judah." 

In  Second  Kings,  chapter  10,  verse  22,  we  find  the 
following:  "For  the  king  had  at  sea  a  navy  of 
Tharshish  with  the  navy  of  Hiram.  Once  in  three 
years  came  the  navy  of  Tharshish  bringing  gold  and 
silver,  ivory  and  apes  and  peacocks."  This  navy  of 
Tharshish  is  beyond  question  the  navy  of  big  ships 
manned  by  Jews  and  Phoenicians,  and  the  expres- 
sion here  used  beyond  question  is  used  in  the  sense 
we  should  use  in  speaking  of  a  navy  of  big  ships,  or 
Baltimore  Clippers. 

In  Second  Chronicles,  chapter  3,  verse  6,  we  find 
the  following  :  "  And  he  garnished  the  house  with 
precious  stones  for  beauty,  and  the  gold  was  gold  of 
Parvaim." 

We  will  not  at  the  present  time  stop  to  ask  where 
was  Ophir,  where  was  Parvaim,  where  did  the 
sailors  of  Tyre,  so  skilled  in  navigation  and  so  capa- 
ble of  navigating  the  western  ocean,  as  we  have 
seen  them  to  be,  as  to  make  successful  voyages  over 
2 


10 

to  the  Orkneys,  a  distance  of  some  four  thousand 
miles  from  their  homes,  spend  the  three  years  dur- 
ing which  they  were  absent  on  their  voyages  from 
the  easterly  gulf  of  the  Red  Sea  ?  No  Jewish  lexi 
con  tells  us  of  almug  or  algum  trees  ;  no  Hebrew 
writer  undertakes  to  describe  them.  Bat  that  en- 
terprising publicist,  O1  Donovan,  who  for  the  pur- 
poses of  knowledge  a  few  years  ago  traversed  the 
Caucasus,  crossed  the  Caspian  sea  and  buried  him- 
self for  two  or  three  years  among  the  still  wild 
tribes  of  Turkestan,  tells  us  that  after  his  liberation 
from  the  Turks,  and  while  traveling  in  eastern  Per- 
sia towards  the  capital,  he  found  a  tree  which 
attracted  his  attention  because  its  fibre  reminded 
him  of  that  of  the  Lignum  Vita?,  which  tree  the 
natives  called  "  The  Yalgam."  Here  we  have  Solo 
mon's  algum  tree  with  the  name  scarcely  modified. 
Would  it  be  the  strangest  thing  that  ever  happened 
if  these  "yalgam,'7  "almug,"  or  "algum"  trees,  so 
beautiful  as  to  be  unequalled  by  anything  known  in 
Palestine,  and  for  that  reason  set  up  as  ornaments 
in  God's  house,  should  turn  out  in  the  day  when  all 
things  become  known  to  be  rosewood  and  mahogany 
from  the  west  coast  of  Central  America,  taken  on 
board  by  Solomon's  servants  on  their  return  from 
Parvaim  or  Peru  and  the  old  mines  of  Potosi,  where 
they  had  gone  for  the  gold  which  filled  the  coffers 
of  Solomon.  It  may  be  said  that  such  would  be  a 
long  voyage  ;  true,  but  not  much  longer  than  a  voy- 
age to  the  Orkneys.  Authentic  profane  history 
tells  us  that  between  six  and  seven  hundred  years 
before  the  birth  of  Christ,  Pharaoh  Necho,  King  of 
Egypt,  built  a  fleet  in  the  "Red  Sea,  manned  it  with 
Phoenician  sailors  and  sent  them  out  upon  the 
waters  to  discover  the  shape  and  dimensions  of 
the  continent  of  Africa.  These  sailors  passed 
down   through   the   straits   of  Bab  et  Mandel  and 


11 

clear  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  the 
•continent  of  Africa  more  than  two  thousand  years 
before  Vasco  Degama,  and  coining  in  through  the 
straits  of  Gibraltar  after  an  absence  of  about  two 
years.  Their  food  supply  run  low,  their  supply  was 
mainly  wheat,  they  tied  up  their  ships,  landed, 
plowed  the  ground  with  sharpened  sticks,  cast  their 
bread,  not  upon  the  waters,  but  upon  the  ground, 
and  thus  raised  a  new  crop  of  wheat,  preparing  to 
supply  their  wants  until  they  should  return  to 
Egypt,  that  eternal  land  of  plenty. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  for  centuries  previous 
to  the  close  of  the  Punic  wars  under  Hannibal  the 
Phoenician  people  owned  and  controlled  the  whole 
north  of  Africa,  west  of  Egypt,  and  the  whole  of 
Spain  up  to  the  Ebro,  and  the  whole  of  Cyprus  and 
a  very  large  portion  of  Sicily,  and  that  when  the 
ancient  writers,  and  even  modern  writers  speak  of 
Spain,  the  Carthagenians  and  northern  Africa,  they 
refer  to  the  people  who  sprang  from  the  commercial 
cities  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  sea, 
occupying  a  territory  of  not  more  than  one  hun- 
dred miles  in  extent  north  and  south,  and  extend- 
ing back  into  Syria  not  more  than  fifteen  miles, 
whence  all  these  people  sprang,  and  applied  to  them 
the  general  term  of  Phoenicians. 

From  the  authorities  we  have  quoted  we  think 
there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  here  and  there  a 
learned  man  among  the  Greek  scholars  had  come  to 
believe  that  some  eastern  navigator  had  discovered 
a  western  world  exceedingly  productive  and  beauti- 
ful, and  that  a  population  of  eastern  origin  had 
sprung  up  and  existed  in  the  lands  so  discovered. 


12 


IF  THE  WESTERN  CONTINENT  HAD  REALLY 
BEEN  DISCOVERED  ACCIDENTALLY,  OR  OF 
SET  PURPOSE,  WHAT  EASTERN  NATION 
WOULD  BE  MOST  LIKELY  TO  HAVE  BEEN 
THE  DISCOVERERS  OF  THIS  WESTERN 
WORLD. 

Nineveh  and  Babylon  are  never  spoken  of  as  hav- 
ing sent  even  a  keel  boat  out  upon  the  seas.  Egypt 
has  been  called  the  "Cradle  of  The  Arts"  and  the 
"  Birthplace  of  Science  and  Civilization,"  but  Egypt 
never  attained  the  maritime  power  or  skill  to  enable 
her  to  navigate  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean 
beyond  the  mouths  of  her  eternal  river. 

Greece,  after  wards  so  celebrated  for  science,  art 
find  philosophy,  was  at  the  day  of  which  Homer 
sung,  a  mere  association  of  savage  groups,  engaged 
in  wars  instead  of  seeking  commercial  profits  in  dis- 
tributing the  products  of  civilized  life  among  the 
nations  of  mankind. 

And  Romulus  and  Remus  had  not  yet  emerged 
from  the  sheep  folds  upon  the  Italian  hills  But 
very  early  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  as  stu- 
dents of  history  believe,  earlier  than  the  call  of 
Abraham,  the  interests  of  mankind  had  called  into 
existence  along  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea  an  active  and  intelligent  population  which 
had  engaged  in  commerce  as  a  means  of  subsistence, 
and  were  carrying  it  on  with  such  success  as  was 
possible  in  the  then  condition  of  the  world  of  man- 
kind A  civilization  had  sprung  up  at  a  very  early 
period  along  the  banks  of  the  united  rivers,  the 
Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  and  from  the  Persian  gulf 
to  Nineveh  and  Nimroud,  where  was  produced  a 
great   variety  of  articles   of   necessity  and   luxury 


13 

unknown  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  We  all  under- 
stand the  story  told  of  Aehan,  who  secreted  in  the 
floor  of  his  tent  a  Babalonish  garment  about  four- 
teen hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  while 
Israel  was  battling  against  Ai  See  Joshua,  Chap. 
8.  The  children  of  Japhet  had  passed  up  through 
Persia  to  the  Caucasus,  and  from  the  Caucasus 
around  the  Black  Sea  to  the  waters  of  the  Danube 
and  the  Grecian  Islands.  The  luxuries  produced  in 
the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  called 
Mesopotamia,  furnished  a  ready  basis  for  a  success- 
ful commerce  across  the  desert  by  the  way  of 
Damascus  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  and 
it  was  by  this  means  that  a  commerce  sprang  up 
along  these  shores  such  as  the  world  had  never 
seen,  and  which  rendered  the  people  resident  there 
the  leaders  in  all  the  arts  of  life,  including  the  art 
of  navigation,  throughout  the  then  known  world, 
a  result  but  twice  paralleled  on  earth,  once  in  the 
middle  ages  at  Venice  and  once  in  our  own  age  at 
our  magical  Chicago.  This  enabled  this  people  to 
become  the  leaders  of  their  race  down  to  about  six 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  when  there  came  that 
terrible  war  wherein  Nebuchadnezzar,  by  besieging 
Tvre,  caused  "every  head  of  that  people  to  become 
bald  and  every  shoulder  to  become  pealed."  Tyre 
subsisted  after  the  siege  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  but 
Tyre  never  attained  again  the  prosperity  or  in- 
fluence which  she  possessed  at  the  commencement 
of  this  memorable  siege.  She  had  before  this  time 
planted  two  hundred  and  fifty  cities  upon  the  north 
coast  of  Africa,  including  the  celebrated  city  of 
Carthage.  She  had  settled  and  occupied  two  hun 
dred  cities  in  the  territory  of  Spain,  and  for  cen. 
turies  occupied  the  whole  of  that  country  up  to  the 
Ebro.  The  Jewish  historians  speak  of  Spain  as 
Tharshish.     Greek  writers  speak  of  Spain  as  Tar- 


14 

tesus.  Jewish  historians  and  prophets  speak  of  the 
ships  of  Tharshish  as  the  most  magnificent  sea- 
going crafts  known  to  the  worid.  as  we  for  half  of 
a  century  boasted  of  our  Baltimore  Clipper.  Her 
sailors  passed  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  and 
passed  up  the  northwest  coast  of  France  and  estab- 
lished their  religion,  the  worship  of  Baal,  or  the 
sun,  among  the  simple  people  of  Bretagne  so  firmly 
and  universally  that  at  this  day  at  Carnac,  in  the 
Morbihan,  there  stand  more  Phoenician  funereal 
monuments  of  unknown  antiquity  than  can  be 
found  together  in  any  form  of  religion  in  any  other 
portion  of  the  world's  surface.  They  discovered  tin 
in  the  Scilly  Islands,  off  the  coast  of  Cornwall,  and 
wrought  those  mines  for  centuries.  Those  Islands 
were  known  to  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  as 
the  Cassiterrides,  or  Tin  Islands.  They  worked 
both  tin  and  copper  mines  in  Cornwall,  and  made 
profits  on  the  sale  of  the  products  throughout  the 
known  world.  They  passed  up  the  British  channel 
and  through  the  German  Ocean,  and  in  the  im- 
mense sand  dunes  at  the  mouth  of  the  Baltic  dis- 
covered and  utilized  that  beautiful  product  of  the 
primeval  forests  called  amber,  which  they  dug  from 
the  sand  hills.  They  took  with  them  their  priests 
(the  priests  of  Baal)  and  introduced  the  worship  of 
the  sun,  and  made  that  worship  paramount  and  uni- 
versal in  England,  Ireland  and  Scotland,  as  well  as 
in  Bretagne  and  the  northwest  of  France.  So  thor- 
oughly has  the  religion  of  Baal  been  fastened  upon 
the  peoples  of  these  regions  that  portions  of  them 
at  this  day  salute  the  arrival  of  the  Summer  Solstice, 
June  twenty-fourth,  with  burning  fires,  the  precise 
meaning  of  which  is  forgotten,  but  through  those 
fires  in  all  the  early  portions  of  the  present  century 
the  inhabitants  have  jumped  with  their  little  ones 
in  their  arms,  as  the  phrase  goes,  on  Saint  John's 


15 


eve,  "for  luck.''  The  wizard  of  the  north,  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  in  his  song  entitled  "Hail  to  the 
Chief,'1  in  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  has  the  following 
when  speaking  of  "  Clan  Alpines  Pine  ": 

"  Ours  is  uo  saplin, 
Chance  sown  by  the  fountain, 
Blooming  at  Beltane,"  (Baaltime) 
"  In  winter  to  fade." 

Indeed  the  literary  men  of  Scotland  very  gener- 
ally call  the  Summer  Solstice  the  Beltane.  One 
of  the  finest  of  the  smaller  towns  in  England  even 
to  this  day  bears  the  name  of  Belper,  (i.  e.  Baalpeor.) 

They  built  that  wonderful  prehistoric  open  air 
temple,  still  standing  upon  Salsbury  Plain,  and 
bearing  the  name  of  Stonehenge,  the  most  wonder- 
ful monument  now  standing  upon  the  earth's  sur- 
face. They  built  several  other  circular  open  air 
temples  in  the  British  Islands,  and  conspicuously 
among  them,  away  up  in  the  Orkneys,  above 
Scotland,  a  very  perfect  and  beautiful  one  called  the 
"Standing  Stones  of  Stennes." 

They  visited  the  Azore  Islands,  west  of  Gibraltar, 
out  in  the  Atlantic  ocean,  and  as  we  learn  by 
Chateaubriand's  Outretombe,  Phoenician  coin  in  the 
last  century  was  found  scattered  in  the  soil  of  these 
Islands.  A  man  who  carries  his  eyes  about  him 
will  rarely  enter  a  large  Irish  assembly,  or  an 
assembly  of  Canadian  Frenchmen  whose  blood 
comes  principally  from  Bretagne,  without  noticing 
here  and  there  a  swarthy  complexion  surrounding 
intensely  bright  flashing  eyes  which  speak  of  Spain 
and  Carthage  and  the  blood  of  warmer  climes. 

About  one  thousand  years  before   Christ,    Solo- 


16 

mon,  the  Prince  of  Israel,  resolved  to  build  a  tem- 
ple to  the  God  of  Abraham  which  should  exhibit  on 
Mount  Zion  architectural  skill  and  beauty  such  as 
the  world  had  never  seen.  The  construction  of 
that  erection  was  intrusted  entirely  to  the  people 
of  Phoenicia  ;  everything  was  perfected  at  Tyre  so 
completely  that  "no  hammer  or  instrument  of  iron 
sounded  upon  the  building"  after  its  component 
parts  reached  the  Mount  of  God.  Even  the  basins 
that  were  to  be  used  in  the  Lord's  house  were  con- 
structed by  the  artizans  of  Phoenicia. 


17 


IS  THERE  ANY  EVIDENCE  EXISTING  UPON 
THE  WESTERN  CONTINENT  SHOWING  OR 
TENDING  TO  SHOW  WHENCE  THE  PEOPLE 
WHO  ERECTED  THE  PREHISTORIC  STRUC- 
TURES ON  THE  WESTERN  CONTINENT  CAME  ? 

FIRST. 

The  soil,  climate  and  productions  of  the  Peninsula 
of  Yucatan,  and  that  part  of  Mexico  and  Guate- 
mala where  these  prehistoric  remains  are  found, 
are  precisely  what  are  described  by  the  European 
writers  who  speak  of  the  beauty,  the  loveliness  and 
the  grandeur  of  the  Hesperides  and  the  homes 
founded  by  eastern  adventurers  beyond  the  western 
ocean. 

SECOND. 

The  prehistoric  structures  found  in  those  regions 
and  in  neighboring  regions  are  all  built  on  plans 
and  patterns  borrowed  from  lands  bordering  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  although  the  structures  seem 
to  have  followed  verbal  descriptions  rather  than 
exact  mechanical  patterns. 

All  of  these  structures  north  of  Panama  seem  to 
have  been  erected  for  public  purposes,  and  probably 
in  connection  with  the  offices  of  some  form  of 
religion  ;  and  every  structure  of  them,  of  which  any 
appreciable  portion  is  standing,  is  built  upon  or  in 
connection  with  pyramids  as  perfectly  pyramidal 
and  regularly  constructed  as  were  the  pyramids  of 
ancient  Egypt.  Most  of  these  pyramids,  however, 
are  mere  earth  mounds,  instead  of  being  construct- 
ed of  brick  or  stone  as  were  those  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Nile.  Let  us  refer  to  a  few  of  the  localities 
where  these  pyramidal  structures  are  most  con- 
spicuous. 
3 


18 

At  Copau,  situate  at  the  western  border  of  Hon- 
duras, and  by  the  side  of  the  river  Copan,  is  a  large 
enclosure,  some  two  miles  in  extent,  bounded  upon 
the  one  side  by  the  Copan  river,  on  the  bank  of 
which  are  walls  of  beautiful  cut  and  fitted  stone 
rising  to  the  height  of  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet, 
designed  to  keep  the  earth  upon  that  side  of*  the 
river  from  being  carried  away  by  floods.  This  river 
at  this  place  constitutes  one  side  of  a  tract  of  land 
laid  out  nearly  in  a  square,  along  the  outer  sides  of 
which,  at  regular  intervals,  are  constructed,  and 
still  remaining,  a  very  large  number  of  pyramids 
made  of  hewn  stone  evidently  designed  to  outline 
this  extended  sacred  field. 

This  field  within,  is  ornamented  with  a  wealth  of 
statuary,  monuments  and  figures  of  idols,  practi- 
cally inconceivable  in  amount ;  but  we  count  this 
statuary  of  no  importance  now,  as  we  are  confining 
our  attention  to  the  tendency  of  this  prehistoric 
people  to  erect  pyramids.  For  a  fuller  account  of 
this  locality  we  refer  to  Stephens' Travels' in  Cen- 
tral America,  Chiapas  and  Yucatan,  Vol.  1,  Chap.  8. 

At  Santa  Cruz  Del  Quiche,  within  the  State  of 
Chiapas,  Mexico,  there  exists  a  pyramid  erected  for 
defensive  purposes,  constructed  of  earth  and  terra- 
ced as  it  rises,  of  enormous  proportions  ;  upon  its 
top  is  a  regular  fortification  upon  the  top  of  which 
rises  a  pyramidal  temple  above  the  fortification. 
This  structure  is  particularly  described  by  Stephens 
in  the  work  above  quoted?  in  his  second  volume, 
chapter  10,  page  161,  &c. 

At  Occasingo  in  Chiapas,  there  is  a  conspicuous 
pyramid  constructed  of  earth,  of  somewhat  exalted 
proportions,  upon  the  top  of  which  is  a  small  pyr- 
amidal temple  having  over  its  porch  the  ornamenta- 
tion  which  is   so   common   upon   the   temples    of 


19 

ancient  Egypt,  and  occasionally  seen  in  the  land  of 
Phoenicia,  to  wit  :  a  winged  globe  wrought  in 
stone.  The  globe  itself  has  become  loosened,  and 
has  dropped  from  its  place  upon  the  front  of  the 
temple  but  still  rests  upon  the  ground  before  it, 
while  the  wing  to  which  it  was  attached  remains  in 
place  upon  the  temple  as  perfect  as  when  it  was 
first  wrought  For  a  description  of  these  works  at 
Occasingo,  see  Stephens'  second  volume,  chapter  15, 
page  25S,  &c. 

The  same  sort  of  pyramidal  structures  remain  in 
admirable  preservation  conspicuous  at  Palenque, 
in  Chiapas,  where  an  immense  pyramid  still  exists 
standing  in  great  perfection  with  an  elegant  temple 
upon  its  top.  Pyramidal  structures  and  shapings 
are  found  everywhere  at  Palenque.  See  Stephens' 
Work,  above  quoted,  vol.  2,  chap.  20,  page  337,  &c. 

At  Uxmal,  also  in  Chiapas,  we  have  another  ex- 
hibition of  pyramidal  structures  with  temples  upon 
their  tops.  We  refer  again  to  the  same  work  of 
Stephens,  vol.  2,  chap.  25,  page  120,  &c. 

These  remains,  to  which  we  have  referred,  have 
far  greater  importance  in  our  investigation  than  can 
be  attached  to  the  mere  building  of  pyramidal 
structures.  The  wealth  of  sculpture  found  at  the 
places  referred  to  is  immensely  great  and  deserves 
the  attention  of  scholars  and  thinking  men  to  an 
extent  greater  than  we  can  now  devote  to  them. 

In  our  view,  the  people  who  erected  those  struct- 
ures possessed  a  knowledge  and  civilization  far  in 
advance  of  the  population  that  surrounded  them, 
and  that  the  surrounding  populations  to  a  great 
degree  imitated  their  examples  and  adopted  their 
religion. 


20 

That,  as  we  believe,  led  to  the  construction  at 
Cholula,  a  little  town  now  of  ten  thousand  inhabit- 
ants, fifteen  miles  from  Puebla,  on  the  road  leading 
from  Vera  Cruz  to  Mexico,  on  the  plains  of  Anahuac, 
at  the  height  of  6912  feet  above  the  sea,  of  that 
immense  pyramid  of  earth  still  standing,  177  feet 
in  height,  measuring  1445  feet  on  either  side,  and 
ascended  by  120  steps. 

There  are  two  other  pyramids  at  Otumba,  seven 
leagues  north-east  of  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  in  the 
language  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  called,  one 
"The  House  of  the  Sun,"  and  the  other,  "The 
House  of  the  Moon."  The  House  of  the  Sun  is  680 
feet  square  at  the  base,  and  221  feet  high. 

On  the  top  of  this  there  was  originally  erected  a 
great  statue  of  the  sun.  The  uther  pyramid  is 
much  smaller  but  rises  to  the  height  of  144  feet, 
and  on  its  top  was  a  statue  of  the  moon.  Upon  the 
plain  about  these  structures  are  a  number  of 
smaller  pyramids  not  necessary  to  be  described. — 
The  sides  of  all  the  pyramids  here  constructed  cor- 
respond with  the  cardinal  points  of  the  compas. 
The  pyramids  that  we  have  referred  to  are  all  pat- 
terned after  those  constructed  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Nile,  and  are  all  found  about  the  west  border  of 
Yucatan,  about  the  north  border  of  Guatamala  and 
south  of  the  centre  of  the  great  Eepublic  of  Mexico. 

It  will  be  well  to  remember  that  the  mountains 
and  plains  of  North  America  cover  millions  of 
square  miles  north  and  east  of  the  country  where 
these  pyramids  have  been  constructed,  and  that 
those  mountains  and  plains  are  covered  in  many 
places  with  earth  mounds  of  an  almost  inconceivable 


21 

variety  of  forms,  and  yet  the  form  of  the  pyramid 
seems  to  be  utterly  unknown  on  the  Western  Con- 
tinent, except  in  the  narrow  region  that  we  have 
delineated.  We  might,  perhaps,  be  justified  in 
asking :  From  what  people  on  earth  could  this 
building  of  pyramids  be  copied  except  from  those 
dwelling  upon  the  banks  of  the  Nile  \ 


22 


THE  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF  OF  THE  PEOPLES  WHO 
CONSTRUCTED  THE  WONDERFUL  PREHIS- 
TORIC TOWERS  AND  TEMPLES  UPON  THE 
CONTINENT  OF  AMERICA. 

They  were  the  worshipers  of  Baal,  the  god  wor- 
shiped by  the  Phoenicians,  and  paid  their  devotions 
to  him  with  the  same  rites  that  they  practiced 
wherever  their  influence  was  effective. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Baal  was  supposed  to 
exist  and  was  worshiped  as  a  being  of  biform 
existence.  In  his  beneficent  qualities,  as  the  sun,  he 
was  supposed  to  be  the  author  and  sustainer  of  all 
life  and  the  fountain  of  all  pleasures.  In  his  sterner 
character  wherein  he  was  known  as  Moloch  or 
Molech,  by  the  children  of  Israel,  he  was  the  most 
cruel,  stern,  relentless  monster  that  the  imagina- 
tion of  man  ever  depicted,  and  his  votaries  every- 
where sought  to  conciliate  him  by  presenting  him 
with  the  most  horrid  scenes  of  human  agony. 
Attempts  were  every  where  made  to  conciliate  him 
by  laying  human  captives  upon  his  altar,  and  for 
want  of  captives  taken  in  war,  such  peaceful  citi- 
zens as  the  priests  saw  fit  to  select. 

Human  victims  were  constantly  dying  upon  a 
thousand  altars  not  only  in  Phoenicia,  but  in  all 
western  and  north-western  Europe. 

It  was  firmly  believed  b}r  the  votaries  of  Moloch 
that  he  could  be  most  readily  conciliated  by  the 
offering  of  children  upon  the  altars,  that  he  most 
especially  delighted  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  first  born 
of  every  family.  Men  thus  offering  "the  fruit  of 
their  bodies  for  the  sin  of  their  souls."  Early  in  the 
history  of  this  worship  it  was  deemed  sufficient  if 


23 

children  passed  through  the  fires  without  the  de- 
struction of  their  lives,  but  down  the  ages  it  came 
to  be  believed,  that  if  a  family  would  secure  the  favor 
of  this  deity,  the  oldest  child  of  each  union  must  be 
actually  roasted  to  conciliate  favor.  Even  good  old 
Abraham  who  had  been  called  from  upper  Chaldea 
to  receive  all  the  land  of  Israel  for  him  "and  his  seed 
forever,  conceived  the  idea  that  God  required  the 
roasting  of  the  son  of  Sarah  upon  the  hill  of  Zion, 
and  never  relented  until  a  ray  of  common  sense 
enlightened  his  intellectual  vision,  after  he  had 
actually  bound  Isaac  to  the  altar. 

We  have  referred  to  the  beautiful  monuments 
that  still  exist  at  Uxmal,  Palenque,  Occasingo, 
Queche  and  Otumba,  and  to  the  temples  and  mon- 
uments still  standing  there.  Upon  all  these  beauti- 
ful structures  are  engraved  in  the  living  stone,  or 
wrought  in  stucco,  most  striking  representations  of 
the  sun  with  a  huge  priest  on  either  side,  standing 
with  arms  outstretched  each  holding  in  his  hands  a 
naked  child  offering  it  to  the  relentless  deity.  The 
practice  of  burning  human  beings  as  offerings  to 
the  sun  existed  very  extensively  down  to  the  date 
of  the  Spanish  conquest.  Showing  that  the  same 
so-called  religion  which  prevailed  in  western  Europe 
before  the  Roman  conquest,  was  still  paramount 
and  terribly  enforced  among  these  settlers  in 
America,  though  so  far  removed  from  the  parent 
stock.  We  have  spoken  thus  far  of  American 
remains  which  are  found  north  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  but  there  are  still  existing,  in  the  old  land 
of  Peru,  structures  which  for  thousands  of  years 
have  been  telling  the  story  of  their  origin. 

There  are  all  over  this  land  of  Peru  remains  not 
of  palaces  and  temples,  but   of  roads  and  water- 


24 


courses,  showing  a  mechanical  skill  such  as  perhaps 
cannot  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  earth  elsewhere 
as  existing  as  early  as  these  must  have  been  con- 
structed. 

The  people  who  did  this  work  are  absolutely 
extinct.  Many  have  supposed  that  in  the  popula- 
tion of  Central  America  there  is  still  a  remainder  of 
the  blood  of  the  people  who  once  dwelt  there,  thus 
rendering  the  local  inhabitants  in  some  degree 
superior  to  the  aboriginal  Indians  of  that  country. 
Not  so  in  Peru.  It  is  only  from  the  structures 
which  we  find  and  the  conditions  which  attend 
them  that,  any  evidence  is  found  that  there  ever 
was  in  Peru,  any  people  superior  to  the  dull  Indians 
of  the  mountains. 

The  traditions  of  the  country  speak  of  one  Manco 
Capac  appearing  in  the  country  at  some  indefinite 
period,  and  that  he  and  his  family  descendants  were 
rulers  for  a  long  course  of  time,  ruling  and  control- 
ing  the  business  and  social  life  of  the  population  of 
Peru.  That  blood  had  been  long  extinct  before  the 
Spanish  conquest. 

Let  us  see  for  a  moment  whether  anything  re- 
mains to  show  what  were  the  religious  ideas  of 
Manco  Capac,  and  those  coming  with  and  descended 
from  him.  We  find  abundant  remains  of  struct- 
ures and  carved  columns  in  the  almost  desert 
regions  of  Atacama,  in  the  high  lands  of  what  is 
now  Bolivia,  between  Peru  and  Chili,  between 
twelve  and  thirteen  thousand  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea.  These  structures  and  carved  monu- 
ments are  largely  gathered  about  the  lake  of 
Titicaca.  At  Sillustani  on  a  promontory  extend- 
ing into  that  lake,  is  constructed  a  stone  circle  as  an 
outdoor  temple,  standing  more  perfect  to-day  than 


25 

Stonehenge  or  Stennes,  or  the  structures  at  Carnac 
in  Bretagne.  It  is  undoubtedly  an  outdoor  temple 
for  the  worship  of  the  sun.  See  Squires'  Travels 
in  the  Lauds  of  Incas,  page  384,  &c. 

This,  taken  by  itself,  might  not  prove  to  a  certain- 
ty that  this  outdoor  temple  was  for  the  worship  of 
the  sun,  but  at  Tiahuanuco,  in  the  same  work,  at 
page  2S8  to  292  inclusive,  we  have  the  whole  story 
told  as  plainly  as  it  could  be  in  a  thousand  printed 
volumes.  Over  the  entrance  to  a  cemetery  is  a 
carved  monolith,  or  single  stone,  on  which  is  the 
following  described  carving  :  Centrally  over  the 
gateway  upon  this  monolith  is  a  well  carved  figure 
of  the  sun,  and  upon  the  right  hand  and  the  left 
hand  and  below,  are  sculptured  some  fifty  figures 
of  beings  with  human  bodies,  and  the  wings  of 
angels  as  imagined  and  represented  in  western 
Asia  and  in  Europe.  Half  of  the  angels  have 
human  bodies,  angel  wings  and  the  heads  of  hawks. 
The  Romans  and  the  Greeks  held  Mercury  to  be  the 
god  of  eloquence  and  of  wisdom. 

Instead  of  furnishing  him  with  the  wings  of  the 
Asiatic  angel,  they  clothed  his  head  in  a  cap  close 
to  the  ears  with  wings  extended  from  the  ears,  and 
with  other  wings  extended  from  his  ankles. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  Paul  and  Barn- 
abas were  upon  their  great  mission  through  Asia 
Minor,  preaching  the  gospel,  the  people  became 
very  much  excited  at  Paul's  preaching  at  Lystra 
and  Derbe,  and  believing  that  the  gods  themselves 
had  come  to  them,  they  called  Barnabas,  Jupiter, 
and  the  orator  Paul,  Mercurius.  See  acts  of  the 
Apostles,  Chap.  14,  12th  verse. 

4 


26 

In  the  Egyptian  economy,  Thoth  was  worshiped 
as  the  god  of  wisdom  and  eloquence,  and  represent- 
ed as  possessing  a  human  body  with  a  hawk's  head. 
Both  regions  representing  the  hawk  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  wisdom  among  the  feathered  creation. 
Here  at  Tiahuanuco,  we  have  the  Greek  and  Egyp- 
tian god  of  wisdom,  furnished  with  the  wings  of  the 
Asiatic  angel,  and  standing  in  eternal  attendance 
upon  the  Phoenician  sun  god.  All  these  figures  are 
perfect,  as  showing  the  ideas  and  intentions  which 
led  to  their  construction,  yet  indicating  in  the 
roughness  of  the  work  that  they  had  been  con- 
structed by  one  who  was  without  exact  measure- 
ments, probably  without  patterns,  and  without  the 
means  of  obtaining  either  measurements  or  pat- 
terns. In  this  cemetery  at  Tiahuanuco,  one  will 
find  a  hundred  structures  so  like  the  round  tow- 
ers upon  the  south  coast  of  Ireland  as  strongly  to 
awaken  one's  attention.  So  that,  Manco  Capac 
and  his  descendants  were  not  only  sun  worshipers 
but  very  strongly  imbued  with  the  ideas  which 
originated  in  the  eastern  and  southern  coasts  of 
the  Mediterranean  sea. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  the  prehistoric  people 
who  built  the  structures  in  Central  America  and 
Mexico,  which  have  in  these  later  days  filled  the 
civilized  world  with  wonder  and  admiration,  were 
constructed  by  a  people  whose  knowledge  of 
science  and  the  arts  had  reached  the  same  point  of 
advancement  as  had  been  reached  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Nile,  and  in  the  cities  of  Phoenicia,  for  at 
least  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era. 
That  in  the  erection  of  these  structures  they  had 
implicitely  followed  the  patterns,  even  to  their 
ornamentation,  of  structures  and  ornaments  then 
known  and  adopted  in  ancient  Egypt.  That  their 
religious  beliefs  were  identical   with   those   which 


27 

prevailed  among  the  Phoenician  people  upon  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  sea,  upon  the 
coast  of  north-western  Africa  and  throughout  the 
entire  west  and  north-western  portions  of  Europe. 
They  were  sun  worshipers,  offering  infants  and 
full  grown  human  victims  to  appease  the  wrath 
and  conciliate  the  favor  of  their  god.  And  we 
have  farther  seen  that  that  strange  people  called 
the  Incas,  bnilt  outdoor  temples  of  standing  stones, 
and  upon  the  entrance  to  their  cemeteries  engraved 
the  effigies  of  the  same  god  worshiped  in  Central 
America,  and  in  so  large  a  portion  of  the  eastern 
world. 

So  we  think  we  may  say,  with  entire  confidence, 
that  it  was  known  to  many  learned  men  in  ancient 
times  that  there  were  settlements  upon  the  conti- 
nent of  America,  and  that  the  dreams  of  the 
Western  Islands  of  the  Blest,  and  of  the  gardens  of 
the  Hesperides,  rested  upon  most  substantial  facts. 
Modern  scholars,  looking  at  the  matter  casually, 
have  allowed  themselves  to  conclude  that,  because 
these  discoveries  were  made  at  a  very  early  period 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  by  a  peoj^le  who  were 
unable  to  build  their  ships  according  to  the  rules  of 
modern  science,  and  were  compeled  to  navigate 
stormy  oceans  without  the  aid  of  steam,  and  prob- 
ably without  the  aid  of  the  mariner's  compass, 
could  never  have  navigated  wide  seas  and  stormy 
oceans . 

But  how  baseless  this  idea  is  found  to  be,  when 
we  come  to  see  how  easily  and  successfully  the 
Phoenician  people  traversed  northern,  western  and 
eastern  oceans,  and  brought  home  the  products  of 
the  whole  world  to  enrich  themselves  and  the 
peoples  among  whom  Providence  had  fixed  their 
destinies  !     And  how  strangely  such   a   suggestion 


28 


sounds  when  addressed  to  the  understanding  of 
peoples  who  have  seen  again  and  again  the  boister- 
ous Atlantic  traversed  from  continent  to  continent 
by  three  men,  two  men,  and  even  a  single  man,  in 
an  open  boat  !  So  that  the  origin  of  this  people,  who 
were  so  conspicuous  at  one  time  in  Central  Ameri- 
ca, is  certainly  found  to  have  been  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians from  Tyre,  Sidon  or  Aridas  or  from  Tharshish 
or  Carthage  or  the  settlements  towards  the  west. 
The  settlement  of  these  countries  must  have  been 
very  early,  and  their  location  must  have  been 
guarded  by  all  the  pains  and  penalties  so  graphic- 
ally described  in  the  ancient  authors  which  we 
have  quoted.  Intercourse  with  Central  America 
from  the  east  must  have  ceased  before  the  discovery 
of  letters,  for  nowhere  that  we  have  discovered 
throughout  the  extent  of  the  American  settlements 
has  a  letter  been  found  of  any  form  whether  Cuni- 
forai,  Greek,  Roman,  Hebrew  or  Phoenician. 
These  western  settlers  must  have  been  entirely 
ignorant  of  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  for  the  figures 
upon  their  walls  show  the  invention  of  a  system  of 
hieroglyphics  more  complicated  than  anywhere  else 
discovered,  and  which  no  Champollion  has  yet  been 
able  to  translate.  The  human  mind  was  not  dor- 
mant here  but  its  discoveries  are  utterly  lost  to 
mankind.  It  will  be  asked  what  has  become  of 
this  Central  American  population  who  wrought  the 
works  in  question  ?  This  can  only  be  answered 
from  conjecture.  The  number  of  actual  settlers 
from  the  east  were  doubtless  few.  In  erecting  the 
structures  which  have  been  so  much  admired  and 
wondered  at,  they  doubtless  used  the  labors  of  un- 
told thousands  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  appeal- 
ing perhaps  to  their  fears  and  desires  to  conciliate 
the  favor  of  that   God,    whose   terrors  made   the 


29 

Phoenecian  priests  such  an  irresistable  power  over 
the  nations  in  the  west  and  north  of  Europe. 

But  if  for  a  moment  superstition  lost  its  terrors, 
this  little  flock  of  more  intelligent  incomers  were 
powerless  to  resist  the  avenging  hands  of  the  mil- 
lion aboriginal  barbarians.  But  we  are  not  en- 
gaged in  discussing  the  mode  in  which  this  people 
became  extinct,  but  choose  to  confine  ourselves  to 
the  questions,  who  were  they,  and  where  did  they 
come  from  \  We  say  without  hesitation,  that  when 
Columbus  parted  from  Palos  in  Spain,  he  sailed 
from  a  Phoenician  city,  in  Phoenician  vessels, 
manned  by  Phoenician  crews  to  rediscover  worlds 
that  the  Phoenician  ancestors  of  these  men  had 
known  and  settled  not  less  than  three  thousand 
years  before.  We  believe  that  traditions  had  al- 
wa}^s  existed  in  Spain,  whose  blood  up  to  the  Ebro 
is  almost  purely  Phoenician,  of  these  western 
worlds  discovered  by  their  fathers.  No  nation  north 
of  Spain  could  be  induced  to  give  any  considerable 
attention  to  the  arguments  and  solicitations  of  Col- 
umbus. True,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  of 
northern  blood,  red  haired  Goths,  but  their  northern 
blood  had  been  nourished  for  a  thousand  years  upon 
the  hillsides  of  Northern  Spain,  and  they  had  be- 
come Spaniards  in  fact,  with  all  Spanish  beliefs  and 
tendencies.  Beyond  all  question  Columbus  took 
into  account  the  Norwegian  and  Icelandic  voyages 
and  the  voyage  of  Madoc  with  his  Welsh  brethren. 
But  Columbus  knew  that  those  voyages  only  claimed 
to  relate  to  lands  lying  west  and  north-west  of  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar.  But  when  Columbus  unfurled 
his  sails  outside  these  Straits,  in  latitude  thirty-five, 
he  made  no  effort  to  find  the  lands  claimed  to  have 
been  discovered  by  the  Icelanders,  Norwegians  or 
Welsh,  but  directed  his  course  to  a  point  from  fifteen 


30 

to  twenty  degrees  farther  south,  and  thus  reopened 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  world  what  should  have 
been  the  happy  islands  of  the  west  and  the  storied 
gardens  of  the  Hespericles.  We  make  no  doubt 
that  the  Incas  of  Peru  were  brought  to  that  country 
by  the  ships  of  the  same  Phoenician  people.  But 
the  Incas  were  very  few  in  number,  and  came  to 
Peru  with  mechanical  knowledge  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  pottery  far  in  advance  of  that  possessed  by 
the  settlers  in  Central  America,  and  their  works 
initiated  for  the  purpose  of  improving  water  courses 
and  constructing  roads  were  far  more  beneficial  to 
mankind  than  the  temples  erected  to  Baal  in  Cen- 
tral America,  although  the  Incas,  though  more  in- 
telligent than  the  settlers  in  Central  America,  were 
not  yet  emancipated  from  belief  in  that  heathen 
god.  Manco  Capac,  the  first  Inca,  may  have  been 
left,  for  aught  we  know,  by  Solomon's  fleets  from 
Eziongeber,  when  in  search  of  rosewood,  mahogany, 
and  gold,  and  may  have  been  one  of  those  skilled 
mechanics  that  built  Solomon's  Temple,  and  con- 
structed the  basins  for  it,  and  thus  have  become 
enlightened  in  religious  matters,  although  he  had 
not  yet  advanced  so  far  as  to  entirely  abandon  the 
worship  of  Baal. 

We  are  not  unaware  that  Peruvian  tradition 
introduces  Capac  into  Peru  at  a  much  later  period, 
but  no  confidence  can  be  placed  in  dates  suggested 
by  a  people  utterly  unacquainted  with  letters  or 
figures,  and  we  make  no  suggestion  as  to  the  exact 
time  when  the  first  Inca  showed  himself  in  Peru. 
It  may  be  asked  what  we  are  to  say  in  regard  to  the 
storied  Atlantis,  and  especially,  what  shall  we  say 
to  the  fancies  of  Ignatius  Donnelly,  who  has  writ- 
ten such  a  beautiful  romance  in  regard  to  that 
island  supposed  by  him  to  have  existed,  and  have 


31 

been  the  actual  birthplace  of  man.  Our  reply  is  that 
Central  America  was  the  only  true  Atlantis  ;  and 
that  Atlantis  sunk  in  the  ocean  only  when  its  dis- 
coverers became  weakened  in  the  face  of  the  bar- 
barous people  who  surrounded  them  and  lost  their 
supremacy  in  the  commercial  world  among  the 
nations.  Beyond  what  was  true  of  Central  America, 
Atlantis  was  a  dream  of  fancy  at  an  age  of  the 
world  when  fancy  supplied  the  place  of  facts  to  an 
uninstructed  people. 


x  o  t  e  . 

I  am  under  strong  obligations  to  Mr.  George  R. 
Howell,  Archivist  of  the  New  York  State  Library,  for 
the  aid  he  has  given  me  in  selecting  from  ancient  Greek 
and  Roman  authors  their  substantial  statements  in  regard 
to  what  they  considerered  in  their  day  to  have  been 
discoveries  in  the  western   world. 


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